The Dudhope was the last sailing ship to be commisioned for Barrie & Nairn before the company turned exclusively to steam.She was launched on the 7th of August 1893,at 3,300 tons deadweight,Dudhope was a smaller full rigger than the others in the fleet. Her final voyage for B&N ended at Rotterdam in August 1905 ,where she was sold to a Liverpool shipper T.Shute for £9000.00. Shute's retained her until she was captured by U49 on the 15th of July 1917 and sunk with explosive charges . Two months later the U49 was sunk by a British merchantman,who rammed her,BrianD

Pictures and text supplied by David Barrie, Dec. 2010

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Armed Merchant Cruisers At the beginning of the First World War,many British passenger liners were requisitioned by the Royal Navy for conversion to armed merchant cruisers(AMC's). Many vessels had been designed and built in the years leading up to 1914 with this specific role in mind. Decks were strengthened for heavy gunsand accommodation could be easily adapted to naval or troop carrying requirements . The 10th Cruiser Squadron had many such vessels amongst its number and the Royal Navy was able to release 20 regular RN cruisers for other important duties. In this painting by Kenneth Shoesmith we see five AMC's of the Royal Mail Steam Packet company ,painted in Admiralty grey,ploughing through the North Sea in Line abreast. They are Andes, Alcantara,Ebro, Almanzara and Arlanza. The artist used a lot of artistic licence for the ships were never put in such a line up in reality. BrianD

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My thanks to Glyn L.Evans for allowing this item,

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For all those of you who missed this first time, I am posting it again. This is the Ariel of 1865 ,she was one of the most extreme clippers built for the China tea trade. She had a length of 195 feet,a beam of 33.9 feet and a depth of21 feet,and a gross tonnage of 1,058.She was unusually fast in certain conditions ,but to get to this speed her after lines were made so fine that it was dangerous to let her run before the wind in heavy weather. This probably accounted for her disappearance without a trace in1872, BrianD

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RMSP Cardiganshire 1915 This is another study from Glyn L.Evans book on Kenneth Shoesmith. It shows the Royal Mail steamer Cardiganshire embarking troops at the Dardenelles while under fire from Turkish shore battery's. Shoesmith actually sketched this while he was on the Magdelena which was anchored nearby. The ships were part of an evacuation fleet which was withdrawing British and Empire troops, plus French troops too,from the disastrous ,long drawn out,Dardenelles campaign. Shoesmith was transferred to the Cardiganshire in November 1917,BrianD

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This ship was built in America for a young Liverpudlian called James Baines,he was the son of a widow who kept a small sweetshop in the town. Baines was making a name for himself among the hard headed businessmen of Merseyside as someone who could spot business trends and when the Californian Gold Rush began,he was quick to capitalise the situation.He obtained sufficient backing to buy a vessel which had been built in British North America and sent over to Britain for cheap sale and on long credit. With her he did enough business to buy the famous Marco Polo and to start the Black Ball Line- not to be confused with the Black Ball Line of clipper packets that ran across the Atlantic,and with which Baines had no connection. He sought a ship to exploit the Australian trade and engaged Donald Mackay,the most famous Scottish American shipbuilder, to design and build a ship that was both large and fast. This was the first ever order placed by a Briton in an American yard since the War of Independence. Mackay was spurred on by that fact to produce a vessel that would be a record breaker. She was launched in 1854 and her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne broke all existing records.She was registered as having 1,468 tons,244 length,44feet beam and 23 depth.For over ten years Lightning served succesfully- almost without a break- the Melbourne -Liverpool route. In 1869 she was destroyed by fire..The painting is unattributed ,but none the worse for that, BrianD

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This is a Charles Dixon study of the Great Eastern,it is actually titled "The Great Eastern leaving the River Mersey" but I cannot recognise any parts of the river as being the Mersey. The lighters/barges were never seen on the river in my time,nor can I see whether we are looking north or south. I know that this once great ship became an advertising hulk for Lewis's department store;this painting was not dated clearly and I wondered if any of you Mersey watchers can spot anything that might give a clue to her position,BrianD

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This is another Shoesmith classic from Glyn L. Evans book. We are looking at a Royal Mail "A" Class ship heading west with a "bone" in her teeth.The sea is like glass, and an almost cloudless sky is being tinted with dawns early light. It looks like this could be the Alcantara ,a ship in which my late great uncle Joe was a quartermaster. BrianD

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This is the ex Den of Airlie,built for Barrie and Nairn in 1913,she was one of two ships sold to Cunard in 1916,She was renamed Valeria and survived two attacks by U-boats only to run aground on Taylors Bank in the Mersey on the 21st of March 1918 as she approached the end of a passage from New York with a general cargo for Liverpool. She later caughtfire and became a total loss, BrianDThe painting is unattributed

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HMS Majestic The Majestic class of battleship was the very embodiment of late Victorian power,the flagship of the old queens navy,and guardian of her empire. She was built in 1898,the first of nine,the largest class of steel battleships ever built,armed with four 12 inch guns and 12 to 16 secondary six inch guns.The buff ,white and black livery was inherited from the mid-Victorian ironclads such as Warrior.It was thought at that time that conspicuous displays of power maintained peace ,and supported the expanding wealth of Empire based on trade,capital and investment.Premier Gladstones political career was ended by the decision to build up the naval strength and ushered in an era of naval arms races.Majestic met her doom off the Gallipoli beachhead when she was sunk by a threat unimagined when she was conceived two decades before,a torpedo from a U-Boat. BrianDThis picture is from the National Maritime Museum and was executed by Eduardo de Martino in 1898

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The ThamesI'm posting another one of Kenneth Shoesmiths studies.This is the Royal Mail Line Steamer "Thames" on which Shoesmith served as an apprentice in 1911. According to Glyn L. Evans, "Her design with clipper bow and counter stern and raked twin funnels, gave her the appearance of a large private yacht" The ship looks to be in one of the West Indian ports and a Lamport & Holt liner is shown anchored nearby. This angle of view seems to find favour with the artist as he completed many of his ship portraits in a similar manner, BrianD

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The River Thames I have posted another Thames scene,this one is from 1863 and is in the Royal Exchange Art Gallery. It is a work by one of the foremost riverine artists,William Lionel Wylie. A greatly experienced yachtsman,Wylie spent many years on the Thames and painted very many pictures of the traffic that plied that waterway,this is entitled "The Thames at Sunset" and manages to make that murky old river look beautiful,hope you like it ,BrianD

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America This is the vessel that gave her name to the Americas Cup. She was designed by George Steers for John C.Stevens,the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club ,and built 1851 in New York with the express purpose of taking on Britain's formidable Royal Yacht Squadron.America made her first transatlantic voyage in the summer of 1851 and Stevens entered her in the 53 mile race around the Isle of Wight in August,Queen Victoria was in attendance.When America crossed the finishing line, her lead was so great that the Queen asked for the name of the vessel in second place. She received the legendary reply "Your Majesty, there is no second" From then on the trophy that Stevens won has been known as The Americas Cup, the most prestigious prize in the yachting world.The portrait was painted by the artist John Fraser and hangs in the National Maritime Museum,BrianD

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Tonight's marine study is a work by Mike Myers ,a Cornishman ,born in 1954 and who has become one of the most famous of modern marine artist's. This painting is entitled "Sir Edwards Hawkes Fleet at Spithead 1758". I reckon it is a beautifully executed piece of work, the detail being tremendous, BrianD

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HMS Trent Another superb Shoesmith study from Glyn L. Evans book.Here we can see the Royal Mail Liner Trent in her Admiralty livery,built in 1899 for Royal Mails South American service ,she was conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1915.She served as a depot ship to the Monitors HMS Severn and HMS Mersey ,on their mission to destroy the German light cruiser Konigsberg,which lay trappedby a Royal Naval blockade in the shallow waters of the Rufiji Delta on the East African coast. The story of the voyage the shallow draft monitors made from Brazil to Africas East Coast was epic and is worth looking up. The Trent reverted to Royal Mail Line service after WW1 and was sold for scrap in 1922.BrianD

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RMS Queen Mary This study was by an artist called Sibley,it was executed at the time the Queen was completed and had finished her maiden voyage in 1936. During that time she broke six Atlantic speed records and had won the Blue Riband. This is the painting that most of us grew up with,she looks mighty and ineffably British,thank god the Americans have saved her so that future generations might see what British craftsmanship could, at one time, produce, BrianD

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Magenta 1865 This is another lively study by Mark Myers, this one marks the occasion that the British Admiral Sir Sidney Dacres paid a courtesy visit to Cherbourg.His squadron consisted of the ironclads Achilles,Black Prince,Hector,Roal Sovereign and Dewfewnce,and the wooden screw ships Edgar ,Liverpool,Octavia and Constance. They were met by by the French flagship Magenta,seen here firing a salute as the British ships enter the harbour. This visit was used by both navies to showcase their latest vessels as there was a very definite arms race on at the time, BrianD

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The Severn and the Mersey, WW1 Monitors This is a painting by another great British marine artist,Frank H.Mason. This work is of the the battle on the Rufiji River ,when the Monitor vessels Severn and Mersey engaged the German battle cruiser Konigsberg.(see picture by Kenneth Shoesmith of same incident)Like Shoesmith and Dixon,Mason had an abiding love of ships and the sea ,also like Shoesmith,he sailed as an engineer officer, and served in WW1 as a Lieutenant in the RNVR. He had a very succesful career and painted ships of all sizes and calling,he died aged 78 in 1965,BrianD

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Dazzle Here is another ship portrait from Glyn L.Evans book on Kenneth D.Shoesmith,here he has painted an unamed ship which is dressed in dazzle,a method of camouflage developed for the Admiralty during WW1.Another artist,Norman Wilkinson came up with the idea of "dazzling" ships because it made them almost unidentifiable when at sea. Here, the ship is shown at anchor in the harbour at New Orleans,although most sailors would say it was a quayside port ,being on a river and havcing no enclosed moorings. Why Dazzle was not used in WW2 I cannot say,could it have been the expense?BrianD

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